A New Squad
by Tactician of Legend
Summary: Millions of people come to join Border, but few can make it past C-Rank. The odds are the same for Kyou Usami, a young girl trying to make her way through the Ranks. With the help of her squad, and a few unique friends, will she find out what it takes to be A-Rank?
1. Chapter 1

The stiff, humid air was all a person could feel on that summer day. The heat was enough to make a person fall faint, and almost no Border Agents thought it would be right to waste their day patrolling.

Of course, the nearest person was not a Border Agent. Instead, she only carried a baseball bat for defense, as she snuck around dangerously in the Forbidden Zone, where Gates opened up frequently.

Rounding a brick wall, the girl was able to see what she was looking for. A neighbor walked around, moving quickly and having the appearance of a big scorpion. The girl went into a defensive position, ready to strike if the creature got closer.

The neighbor, called a Marmod by official Border members, was much big and quicker than what she predicted. She almost jumped out in front of the monster, her hands shaking. "I-I can defeat you, you-" Before she could finish, the Neighbor let out a loud yell, making the girl drop the wooden bat to cover her ears. The creature was aiming to strike, and the odds of the battle could be seen clearly.

But in what felt like less than a second, the Marmod fell to the ground, being sliced in half. A girl, wearing a dark blue border outfit, stood in front of the beast, quickly wiping her forehead. "It seems one is down. Why can't the Neighbors just agree with us to not fight on hot summer days?"

"Thanks…" The unarmed girl called, making the attacker almost losing her balance as she turned to look at the younger girl. "I guess you had a better chance of that than I did…" The girl kicked the bat, letting out a sigh.

"Wait, a minute," The attacker said, trying to tighten one of her pigtails. "Are you trying to tell me you were trying to fight that… _thing?"_ The girl nodded, sending a wave of shock and dismay through the attacker. "Are you even a C-Rank in Border?"

The girl continued to look down at her feet, her brown messy hair bobbing as she shook her head. "I ended up missing tryouts."

The attacker looked like she was about to yell, but instead rubbed her forehead. "Fine, then. Since this was just harmless, I will let you go."

The girl raised her head, surprised, but gave a huge smile. "Thanks miss!"

"Well, then." The girl replied, and with the yell "Trigger off!" Her outfit changed from a border uniform into a Mikado City school uniform that was all-black. "Please do not call me _miss._ The name is Miki Hanazuki." Miki bent over, grabbing the bat. "I presume this is yours?"

The girl nodded, and grabbed the bat. "Thank you, Hanazuki." Catching herself, she gave a little bow. "My name is Kyou Usami, by the way."

Looking to make sure there were no other Border agents around, Miki started walking towards where Border would be, and to an entrance that was not in the Forbidden Zone. "It would be wise to follow me, then. You don't know when another Neighbor could appear."

Nodding, Kyou quickened her paced to follow Miki, knowing that it would be wise to listen to her.

Once outside of the Danger Zone, the two girls stopped. "I should head back to the rest of my squad." Miki voiced, twisting a piece of her strawberry blonde hair. "I hope you stay safe from now on, ok?"

Kyou gave a few seconds to think, wondering if she could really keep safe. Finally agreeing to Hanazuki's terms, however, she nodded, and gave a grin. "I promise, Hanazuki."

"You promise?" Miki murmured, as though the words brought back memories. They seemed to fade quickly, however, as her friendly demeanor returned. "I will make sure to give a good word in for you at Headquarters, then. Do you like that?"

But as Miki looked up to see Kyou's reaction, she realized that the girl had already gone.

 **1 Year Later**

The Border Headquarters building was filled with excitement. People were overjoyed that they were now able official C-Ranks, even though they had miles to go before they could participate in amazing events like the B-ranks and above did.

Everytone appeared cheerful, except for two girls that were sitting on one of the couches.

"This is not the end of the world, Kyou." A girl with short black hair and glasses said, trying to sound cheerful. "Just because you got turned down, does not mean you can give up!"

"But it's _your_ squad, sis." Kyou, a girl with messy hair that was now blonde, said, curled up on the couch like a cat. "If I have no chance with them, how would I have a chance with any other one?"

This caused some silence for a little bit, as Kyou's sister tried to figure something out. "How about you join Yosuke's squad? I doubt he would get mad."

Without even looking up, Kyou groaned out, "Miwa freaks me out, Shiori. And besides, they already have five members."

"Hmm, then what else…" As Shiori spoke, however, her phone ringed, and she quickly grabbed it from her pocket. "Sorry, Kyou, Kazama needs to discuss something with me."

Kyou looked up at Shiori, and quickly sat up. "It's ok. I'll catch up with you later."

Giving an overly big smile, Shiori ran off, going to wherever her squad leader wanted her to go.

After a minute, Kyou grew tired of sitting on the couch all by herself, and went to go get a drink. But due to her height, she was quickly blocked from the view of the machine.

"Excuse me," She said as she tried pushing her way past two members, but they did not bother to even look at her. "I said excuse me." The words came out louder than she wanted, and the tallest of the two turned to look at her.

"What do you want, kid?" The other member laughed, even though Kyou found nothing even hilarious with the joke. "We aren't opening our squad to anyone, so you can shoo."

Taking a step back, Kyou tried not to keep her head down. "I do not _want_ to join your Squad."

"What did you say?" The man spoke, as if he took an insult from her words. "Listen here, brat."

Shrinking a little bit, and regretting what she said, Kyou spat out, "Can I just-"

"Excuse me, but what is going on here?" A stern voice cried from behind the group. "If you want to fight, then wait for the Rank Battles. You can wait a few hours, right?"

As Kyou turned from the boy to the girl who was talking to them, her eyes immediately lit up. "I remember you!"

The girl stared at Kyou for a little bit, trying to figure out what she meant. She suddenly realized, but not before the boy yelled out, "The leader of Hanazuki Squad, Miki Hanazuki!"

Miki still looked at him harshly, but eventually gave a warm smile. "Yes, that is me. You must have a relative already in Border?"

"Yeah, I do." He replied, extremely happy.

"Well, then. I expect the best from you. No silly fighting, okay?"

He nodded, and then turned to his friend, whispering to him something about Hanazuki squad. Then the two left, in the direction of the front stage.

"Thanks for saving me, again," Kyou said once the boys were too far away to hear. "I can't believe I ran into you on the first day!"

"Well, I am in charge of helping the new Gunners out today."

"I thought you were an Attacker?" Kyou said, confused.

Giving a shrug, Miki said, "I ended up switching to being an All-Rounder. It's way better than being stuck in one type."

"Well, thanks." As she said that, Arashiyama Squad, the face of Border, started announcing where each group of trainees should go. "I guess I have to go. The rest of the Snipers wouldn't want me to hold them back."

"That makes sense." Kyou turned to walk away from Miki, but before she could go too far, Miki let out a "Wait!"

"Y-yes?" Kyou swiveled to look in Miki's direction, hoping she was not going to get in trouble for earlier.

"Do you have a Squad?" Miki's question led to a headshake from Kyou, and Miki immediately smiled. "We have an available spot for another member, and I think you would be a nice touch to the team."

"Wait, _Really?_ " Kyou gasped, sounding more shocked than she wanted to.

"You would have to wait till you became B-Rank, but I think you'll rank up quickly."

"Thanks!" Kyou almost yelled, as she ran to join the rest of the C-Rank Snipers.

Miki went to walk toward the group she was supposed to help, but almost ran into a girl with dark black hair. "Sorry," Miki murmured, but then noticed the face, "H-Hinata!"

The girl gave her a glare, which seemed to fit her face well. "Miki, we cannot just let in anybody to fill our last row!"

"You heard that?" Miki said, almost deflating like a balloon. "Well, she has more guts than half our team."

"That still does not mean she would be a decent member!" Hinata looked over Miki's shoulder to try to see Kyou. "Seriously, she's a Sniper for crying out loud! What do guts have to do with any of that?"

Miki rolled her eyes, not ready for this yet. "If it makes you happy, we will wait to see if she does well on her training. And if she does, then she can get in." Miki still saw anger flashing heavily in Hinata's eyes, but new there was no way around it. "And I am interested to see if she has a Side Effect. From what I remember a year ago, she seemed to have had a very interesting one."

"Fine, then." Hinata groaned, still not sure. "I have to go. Commander Kido wanted me for a meeting."

Felling relieved, Miki sighed. "You _already_ are making me late with my trainees, anyway." Then she turned, and walked away from Hinata. She knew the new Sniper would be the best choice for her Squad, whether the other members thought so or not.


	2. Chapter 2

**2 years later, present day**

The HQ Lobby barely had anyone in it, besides a woman named Kyoko who was stuck at desk duty that week, and two people on the same couch waiting for someone to come back.

One of the couch sitters was Kyou Usami, who was busy trying to keep a blonde curl from getting in front of her face. After a couple of failed attempts, she pushed it behind her ear, and leaned back. _Please be here today,_ she thought, not willing to sit out there for another day that week.

The other person on the couch was a boy. He had black hair, and wore a white border jacket with the insignia on it, though it lacked a squad number. Even though he sat next to someone, he spent most of his time either looking at his phone, or looking to see if someone would eventually come down the hall.

"Would the person who came to meet Commander Shinoda stand up?" Kyoko asked, looking in their direction. As if this was planned, both of them stood up at the exact same time. "Oh, I see. Well, I just got a call that he will be back in ten minutes, so just make yourself at home."

And with that, the two of them sat right back down.

"So what are you here for?" Kyou asked, catching the boy off guard. "I came to discuss some squad business with him. And you?"

"The same, really." The boy replied, and put his phone up. "My name's Sarutobi Tetsuya. Yours?"

"That's a mouthful." Kyou said, giving Sarutobi a smile. "Mine name is Kyou Usami."

"Usami?" Sarutobi said, shocked. "I remember hearing Commander Rindo say that name before."

"Yeah, I guess you _would_ know my sister, if you're a part of Border."

The two got quiet again, as someone else walked right past them.

Finally, Sarutobi started the conversation again. "So what kind of Squad issues do you have?"

Getting caught off guard, Kyou tried to remember the exact reason. "Well, I'm trying to start a new squad. My former one just closed, so I've been without one for a few months. I thought now would be a good time to start my own."

"Huh," Sarutobi responded, looking down at his feet. "Well, do you have any members yet?"

Kyou shook her head, sighing. "No, not yet."

"Mr. Tetsuya, Shinoda just came back, so you can go speak with him right now." The lady at the front desk called.

"It's okay; I don't seem to need it anymore." He replied, standing up. "It seems like my problem just got solved."

Giving out a sigh, the Lady in front of the desk called Kyou over. "Since he walked out on his appointment, it seems you can talk to Shinoda at the moment."

"Ok, then." Kyou replied, trying not to run all the way to Shinoda's office.

Once she finally got to his office, she gave a light knock to the door. However, the door flung open before she could finish knocking, and she was face to face with a boy in a blue jacket.

"I knew this meeting would right now." The boy, also known as the Elite Agent Jin Yuichi, said, giving Kyou a smirk. "This seems important, so I better leave. At least, that's what my Side Effect is telling me.

"You have a Side Effect?" Kyou asked, but Jin walked off before he could reply. Sighing she turned toward the Commander. "Hello, Mr. Shinoda."

"Hello, Miss Usami. You told me you had something important to discuss?" Shinoda replied, clearing something off of his desk. "Does this have to do with your Squad dilemma?"

"Yes sir." Kyou said, trying to not have her smile be too big as she sat in a chair. "I think I finally figured out what I wanted to do."

"Could this possibly be you working under the Tamakoma Branch like you planned?"

 _He found out_ , Kyou thought, suddenly wishing she did not tell the news to Kitora while training. "Actually, I decided to stay in your department. I still would like to participate in the Rank Wars and all." _And add that Mr. Rindo_ himself _said I wouldn't be a good fit with the group_.

"Well, that _is_ a logical reason." Shinoda grabbed a folder out of his desk, and began to shuffle through it. "So which Squad do you plan on moving to?"

Trying to sit straight in her chair, Kyou replied, "Actually, I wanted to start a Squad on my own."

The room was filled with silence for what felt like an eternity, but really only became thirty seconds.

"That _could_ be a possible route," Shinoda finally said, putting away the folder. "Do you have any team members for it yet?" Kyou shook her head firmly. "Hmm, that's not good."

"I planned on checking on a few recent B-Ranks. There are probably a few that don't have a squad yet."

"That would be a good idea, if the most recent ones didn't make their _own_ Squad."

Letting out a sigh, Kyou immediately regretted going in their without an extra teammate. "Is there any C-Ranks you could recommend sir?"

Thinking about it, Shinoda Finally jotted a name and phone number on a piece of paper, and gave it to Kyou. "Here is one option. She currently is not coming to our most recent practices, but she would be a great option for your team."

Kyou looked at the paper, and stuffed it into her pocket. "Thank you!" Standing up, she bowed, and headed for the door, barely hearing Commander Shinoda say goodbye.

In fact, she barely realized when she almost walked head first into the Captain of Arafune Squad. "Sorry!" She quickly let out, but looked up to see Arafune, and almost turned red. "Oh, hi."

"I didn't expect you to be here." He gave her a slight smile. "Are you still planning on showing me how to be a better Sniper tomorrow?"

"Sure," Kyou then turned and saw the rest of his Squad waiting for him. Also in the group was Ko Murakami, and all of her happiness fled. "I'll see you there, then."

"Good," And with that, Arafune left to join the rest in what would probably be an amazing training session.

"I could have helped you out today, you know," She murmured, but knew it was too late to try asking to join.

Grabbing the paper out of her pocket, she knew exactly what she needed to do right now, and that was to find the girl Shinoda recommended- Ushio Natsume.


End file.
